[Starmap2-devteam] Fw: [rpg-tools] Re: Makeover for an old tool

[Trace K. <Tra...@ne...>]

----- Original Message -----=20
From: ey...@ya...=20
To: rpg...@ya...=20
Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2001 1:44 PM
Subject: [rpg-tools] Re: Makeover for an old tool


--- In rpg-tools@y..., "Trace Kern" <TraceFox@t...> wrote:
> Anyone wanna help me give a very promising game-system independant=20
> Sci-Fi RPG-maker tool a facelift for the new millenium? Heh!

--- In rpg-tools@y..., "Trace Kern" <TraceFox@t...> wrote:
> Anyone wanna help me give a very promising game-system independant=20
> Sci-Fi RPG-maker tool a facelift for the new millenium? Heh!

This is something I've had on my mind for quite some time.  Jim's
program is by far the best of its sort that I've ever seen, but no dos
app has ever aged very gracefully.  The time has definitely come for a
successor.

The strength of Starmap is its complexity and scalability, especially
the way it interlocks smaller programs, and allows for all sorts of
flexibility.  All the data files are flat ascii dbs, and are well
commented, making manipulation by hand or script extremely easy.

The problem with Starmap is that there is far far far too much data,
and not enough tools to handle it within the main interface.  There
are no filters, no statistics.  Also, once the stars are generated,
turning all those stars into a galactic empire is a near superhuman
task (at least in my experience, but it might just be my attention
span).  Also, the DOS thing is an issue, although the interface is
remarkably clean and easy to use.

The problems can I see with simply taking Starmap and improving it,
but for Windows, are:

- Environment.  I'm speaking outside of my expertise here, but I'm
going to assume that it's hard to make separate programs interact
within the windows environment, mainly because I've never really seen
it happen outside of Microsoft apps.  Yet I already have argued that
Starmap's strength is its open, sum-of-the-parts approach.

- Centralization.  One reason why all starmapping programs are hard to
work with is that only one person can work on the universe at a time,
and transferring data files is a pain.

- Platform.  I happen to use Linux for my desktop, and I know many
people who use Macs.  While there are compatibility layers for Windows
apps, they are usually a pain.  Dual-boots even more so.

- Interface.  Perhaps I'm being cynical, but I haven't seen a Windows
starmapping program yet that I liked for its interface.  A large part
of replacing Starmap would be making sure the interface stays clean
and facile.

- Complexity.  Starmap used flat ascii files to store its data, and
while this was easy to edit, it resulted in a /very/ unwieldly
directory structure.  Also, Starmap's data files were relatively
simple-- essentially coordinates and a few other vital statistics.=20
Ideally, we would want to describe stars and planets more completely,
but complex data and flat ascii files are poor company.  I've seen a
starmapping program (I forget which one now) which, while its level of
detail was unmatched, had data files which were, dare I say, worse
than Gliese 3.0 raw text files in their arcanity and complexity.

So what is my solution?  I think that the ideal Starmap would, at its
heart, be an SQL database with a Perl/CGI or PHP web interface and
perhaps even a multi-platform client.  The benefits?

- All these tools are open-source and freely available, and promote a
modular development approach. =20
- An rpg group that was developing a new universe could all work on
the project together.  Being networked, you could access it from home,
from work, from school, from anywhere. =20
- Mac hacks, Linux gurus, Microsoft junkies and anyone else could have
equal access.
- SQL servers are robust and would swallow up a universe of reasonable
complexity without a burp.  No more corrupted data files!

I've got some preliminary brainwork residing at
"http://eykd.net/open/".  I call it "OpenSphere".  There's a very
basic data structure in MySQL and some incomplete Perl script for
generating planets.  I welcome anyone, especially programmers, who
would be interesting in seeing this sort of thing become reality.  Let
me know what you think.


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